Body in boot, dumped in vat

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The decomposed body of a teenage girl was carried in the boot of a taxi travelling through busy traffic before being dumped in a roadside vat at Dhakuria, a stone’s throw from Lake police station, on Wednesday afternoon.

Residents said they saw the taxi coming along Gariahat Road (South) take a left turn at the Dhakuria Station Road crossing and stop in front of the vat.

After disposing of the body, the taxi driver and a youth left separately, both crossing a police kiosk in front of Dakshinapan on their way.

No one suspected anything till ragpickers rummaging through the vat let out a scream. They had spotted a plastic bag in the garbage and opened it to find the body.

“It was a teenage girl wearing a yellow salwar-kameez. Her hands and legs were tied with a dupatta. There were other clothes, apparently belonging to the victim, stuffed inside the bag,” said Damayanti Sen, the joint commissioner of police (crime).

A preliminary medical examination revealed that the girl had been strangled. “There were no external injuries. We are waiting for the post-mortem report,” said an officer of Lake police station.

Doctors, who examined the body, said the victim was murdered at least 36 hours before the body was dumped.

“The taxi driver, who was in uniform, got off the vehicle along with a youth in his late 20s,” a witness told police. “The driver opened the boot and together they took out a white plastic bag and dumped it in the vat.” The cabbie drove off towards Jadavpur while the youth started walking towards Gariahat.

“I heard the ragpickers cry out that there was a body in the vat. I ran there and caught a glimpse of a body but I could not stand there because of the stench,” said Rina Roy, owner of a roadside tea stall.

nPatient missing: Sheikh Hossain, 55, has been missing from Calcutta Medical College and Hospital since Tuesday. Hossain was hospitalised on Monday with a brain tumour.